Virgin Atlantic closing two more routes
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It was only last month that Virgin Atlantic closed its Shanghai route, cutting off its final ties to East Asia.
Shanghai followed the closure of Hong Kong and Tokyo, although Seoul is still expected to launch in the next year.
It seems that there is more to come, with two more routes now chopped.
The closures are:
- Nassau, Bahamas – final flight outbound on 20th February 2025
- Providenciales, Turks & Caicos – final flight outbound on 15th February 2025
Nassau was launched in November 2021. It seemed to be going well because a third weekly flight was added for Winter 2024. Why was a third flight added (and which still hasn’t launched) just for the route to be cut a few weeks later?
Providenciales is a new route, launched in November 2023.
I should note that Virgin Atlantic has said that the last flight to Nassau will be on the 23rd and the last flight to Providenciales will be on the 21st. However, as of last night, the final flights I could see that were bookable are the ones I listed above.
These routes were all stops on the way to Jamaica
What is interesting about Nassau and Providenciales is that they were stops on the way to Montego Bay in Jamaica.
There are seven flights per week to Montego Bay. Three are direct, two go via Nassau and two go via Providenciales.
It isn’t clear what is happening to the daily Montego Bay service. At present, flights to Montego Bay in March are still operating each day, and still showing stops in Nassau and Providenciales – even though you can’t book to those places on their own.
Will some of the seven Montago Bay services also be dropped? Or will the flights continue and operate directly from Heathrow, cutting a couple of hours from the return journey time?
Re-routing options
Virgin Atlantic has said that it will have a re-routing policy in place on 10th August. Do NOT waste your time contacting them to discuss new flights until then.
I suspect that Nassau customers will be offered flights on Delta with a change in Atlanta. There would also be the option of taking Virgin Atlantic to Atlanta before changing to Delta.
Turks & Caicos passengers could be re-routed on Delta via New York or Boston. However, both options would require passengers to get an ESTA and meet US immigration requirements (no Cuba travel, no unspent convictions etc) so you may want to push for a BA flight.
It is worth noting that, when Shanghai was cancelled, we had a LOT of reports in our comments and in our forum of Virgin Atlantic call centre agents failing to give accurate information. Virgin Atlantic MUST offer you an alternative flight on another carrier. You are NOT obliged to take a refund.
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